The Grace Project has been set up to provide a service that is desperately needed. The response from churches has been very encouraging. This provides confirmation that the model has the potential to help a great number of churches. The scheme is currently available to churches in the East Midlands, and it has the potential to expand very quickly.
The number of new Grace Workers to be appointed will be confirmed at the beginning of May 2008. These new workers will pilot the 2nd stage of the project in the school academic year 2008-2009.
After the initial training period, the new workers will develop and sustain the children’s ministry in a larger number of churches. They will work together as a team, sharing ideas and resources. There will be an ongoing debate about the best ways to reach new children and their families. How can we best disciple children to know and love Jesus? Can we raise up new Christian evangelists from among the young?
There is a financial cost to each church joining the Grace Project. Paid church workers need to be good stewards of their time (in just the same way that churches need to be good stewards of the money that is given to them). The Grace Team will share ideas about how to put together good, cost-effective, programmes that fruitfully reach as many children as possible. How can we build quality relationships that nurture children as individuals. These ideas will necessarily be in the form of a set of principles which can be adapted to meet the needs of churches with differing resources serving very different communities.
It is hoped that the new Grace Workers will want to extend their contracts. Continuity is important in children’s work because it’s important to be able to build up strong relationships with the children and their families. The new workers will play an important role in supporting, training and developing those appointed in future years.
The Grace Project exists to serve churches, so it will be important to build partnerships with the different denominations and other Christian organisations.
The future is difficult to predict, but it is envisaged that ‘Grace for the Next Generation’ will grow very quickly. New Grace Projects may be launched. What other services would promote more and better children’s work? Collectively, the Grace Workers will brainstorm and select new ways to promote Christian children’s work. They will have the exciting opportunity to help shape the future and to really ‘make a difference’. The new team will have different skills, but share a common desire to reach children with the gospel.
